Today is the first day of Kwanzaa

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump released a statement commemorating Kwanzaa, the seasonal holiday celebrated by many African-Americans that begins on December 26 and runs through New Year's Day.

Kwanzaa was created in 1966 by Maulana Karenga, a leader in the Black Power movement and now Chair of the Africana Studies Department at California State University, Long Beach.

Celebrations for Kwanzaa often include song and dance, African drums, storytelling and reading poetry, and a large traditional meal. Though he does not celebrate it as a regular holiday, Hamilton said he supports the principles of Kwanzaa, which are represented by the candles of the seven-branched kinara. The name comes from a Swahili phrase, "matunda ya kwanza", which means "first fruits of the harvest", according to Infoplease.

Obama used similar language spotlighting African-American values in his other presidential statements about Kwanzaa-and his comments caught Trump's wrath years ago. The final line of the blog was a quote suggesting that Kwanzaa, like the Seinfeld-inspired Festivus, was a "fake holiday".

On the first night, a child lights the black candle in the middle, and the family discusses the principle of unity. Kwanzaa is the celebration of a culture, not a religion.

In addition to lighting the kinara, Kwanzaa ceremonies come with food, which can range from African creole, Cajun catfish and West Indian jerk chicken, to collard greens, gumbo and black-eyed- peas.

He struck a similar notein 2015, writing, "Kwanzaa's seven principles-unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith-are also shared values that bind us as Americans".

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